In a move that should get her plenty of notice come Oscar time, Anne Hathaway has committed to a strict diet in order to play the doomed Fantine in the big-screen version of "Les Miserables." But her newly limited food intake apparently isn't quite as drastic as one British tabloid would have us believe.

The London Daily Mirror claims the already slimline star has been ordered by movie bosses to drop 16 pounds in just two to three weeks in order to look convincingly consumptive in the scenes showing her character succumbing to tuberculosis. She's supposedly eating fewer than 500 calories a day to achieve that goal (adults typically eat four times that).

"Anne is playing a destitute factory worker-cum-lady of the night," says a snitch. "Producers have assigned her a personal trainer, and she is literally eating nothing more than a couple of apples a day, and some protein, mainly in the form of a shake."

Seems Hathaway has already filmed scenes in which she appears robust and healthy, and now she has to drop enough weight to look sickly on camera (which, as everyone knows, adds 10 pounds).

"It's not ideal," acknowledges the insider, "but, as with any high-budget movie, there are strict time constraints."

According to the paper, the actress is taking the appropriate steps to maintain her health during the pound-dropping: "Anne knows the risk of such an extreme diet," adds the source, "and will undergo weekly medicals to make sure everything is still functioning as it should do."

Her rep, however, takes issue with the report.

"The story is a huge exaggeration," the mouthpiece scoffs to The Huffington Post. "Anne is on a special diet but is not looking to lose that much weight, and she's consuming more than 500 calories a day. She just needs to look more frail, as she is playing a prostitute who is dying of tuberculosis."

This isn't the first time Anne has had to sacrifice her food intake for a role. To fit into her Catwoman costume in the upcoming "Dark Knight Rises," she joked that she lived on "kale and dust."